Telecommunication providers spend an inordinate amount of time and money for installation of wired or fiber-based backhaul networks. Backhaul networks provide an intermediate link between a core or backbone network and small edge sub-networks. Point-to-multipoint (PMP) wireless networks are being used today to provide backhaul transport for macro, micro, and pico cellular development in locations where wired backhaul networks are not feasible. A PMP wireless network may include a single concentration (or aggregation) node providing coverage to multiple access (or edge) nodes. The multiple access nodes may provide voice and/or data service for multiple user equipment (UEs). PMP wireless networks are based on time-division multiplexing (TDM) or Ethernet.
In PMP wireless Ethernet backhaul (WEB) networks, throughput capacities or bandwidth used may range from ten (10) mega bits per second (Mbps) per access node to one-hundred Mbps per access node, and a number of access nodes may range from four (4) to twelve (12). Coverage between two concentration nodes, of a PMP WEB network, may include overlapping boundaries that provide mutual coverage for common access nodes in between the two concentration nodes. PMP WEB networks are wideband networks in terms of throughput (e.g., 1 to 2 giga bits per second (Gbps)) at the concentration node, and are broadband to wideband networks in terms of throughput (e.g., 10 to 100 Mbps) for each access node. PMP WEB networks may include an option for point-to-point (PTP) communications between access nodes, and may enable adaptive modulation from four (4) quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) to 1024 QAM.
However, a failure of a single concentration node in a PMP WEB network can spell disaster for access nodes, and associated UEs, within the failed concentration node coverage area. This is because the backhaul for such access nodes and associated UEs is unavailable and traffic cannot flow upstream and downstream to and from the access nodes and the associated UEs.